When you reduce Wade's minutes and completely remove Merrill's minutes (+ maybe a little from Niang and Strus) and replace them with Mobley and Garland, you lose out so much on shooting. On the other hand, with Mitchell and LeVert at PG, the team all of a sudden had such good size at every position. With Mitchell being a good kickout passer and finding Allen as the roll man, the team just fit so well. That team won 19 out of 20 games at one point as we all know.
Until something changes, I'm afraid that the current team at full health is the more talented, ill-fitting team that will struggle to win games consistently as we've seen. I don't think it's a coincidence the Cavs started off last season blistering hot with Garland out.
Now, the roster is what it is. It's the coach's job to be creative and maybe even go back to what worked? I don't think any coach in the league would have the balls to not start Garland and Mobley, so not knocking him there. But beyond that, it's in JB's DNA to play 8 - 8.5-man rotation and, when push comes to shove, rely only on the veteran dudes he trusts, rather than assessing things like who's been hot, what does the opponent's lineup look like, what lineups fit, etc. This is the same man who inexplicably decided to start LeVert in the middle of the playoff series last year. Really hope he proves me wrong, but it has not been fun watching this team these past several games.